Women in STEM (part 1)
My name is Benjamin Deslys.
You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.
Let’s rewind.
The day started a normal, average morning, as all good days did. Benjamin woke up to the sound of his alarm clock, swallowed a bowl of overly-microwaved slop, brushed his teeth, kissed a sleepy Florian goodbye, and went to work. Work, for him, was merely a few floors up in the same building, a building he barely ever left, instead spending most of his time tending to Cygnus’ pokémon. And today was another day he got to do just that! What a lucky man he was!
When he arrived, just in time, he started like he always did by feeding his protégés, making sure every single one was healthy and accounted for. Then, he tended to the few that needed medical attention, having been injured by careless grunts. So many trainers carelessly let their pokémon get injured in battle!!!.. But it meant he got to take care of them, sometimes indefinitely, so he never voiced his disapproval too loudly either. He wouldn’t want to be out of a job… Right?
Benjamin’s perfect, perfectly normal day was almost ruined a few hours later by an interruption from his superior. Thankfully, for once, Terrance did not overstay his welcome or worse, try to make smalltalk. He just came in to deposit yet another pokémon for Benji to care for, before leaving in an uncharacteristic hurry. It was certainly unusual, but not in a bad way (one more pokémon for him!!!) so Benjamin thought little of it. Especially since the pokémon in question was one he had been eyeing for years…
You see, Sarah Lockwood was probably the only member of Cygnus who did not take advantage of Benjamin for free pokémon daycare. Even other admins would occasionally drop one or two off at the adoption center, to lighten their loads… Not Sarah. She never had and, it looked like, never would… And it wasn’t for lack of them! She had many, and Benjamin would enviously eye them every time he was called into her office (usually to get yelled at). The pokémon, though, couldn’t be as bad as the trainer, there was no way… He was sure that if he spent just a few hours of days with them, he could befriend them…
So, this morning, when Benjamin finally got his hands on one of them (Sarah’s ace, even)… Well, that largely made up for the fact Terrance was the one to deliver her to him…
The machamp was fainted, when he got her out of her chipped poké ball. A smarter man would have paused and asked questions, like: “Why is she fainted?”, “Why didn’t Terrance take her to the infirmary first?”, “Where even is Sarah, what happened?” or “What was that about keeping it on the down low?”. But Benjamin was not that man, so he excitedly revived the machamp, ready to make a new friend…
Except for the part where the pokémon was terribly angry, and refused to listen, and almost killed a sobble, and broke a window in a fit of rage.
What was that again about keeping things quiet?
Oops.
Women in STEM (part 1)
This month’s event is a Boss Fight(?). Benji is having trouble trying to wrangle Admin Sarah’s Machamp, and it’s up to you to stop her before she 1) kills him, 2) kills one of his sobbles or 3) tears down the entire building. You are free to deal with the situation in whatever way you see fit. You can attack, or try to reason the rampaging pokémon.
At the same time, it might be good to ask some legitimate questions like: “What are you doing here with Sarah’s pokémon, Benji?” “Did you steal our boss’ pokémon, Benji?” or “Where the fuck is Sarah anyway?” Surviving the machamp’s rage is one thing, but surviving Sarah’s when she comes back to get her pokémon will surely be another…
As of now tho, admin Sarah is nowhere to be found.
What happened, anyway?
Brenda
Brenda is a psychic-type Machamp. Yes, her name is Brenda. Her exact moveset is unknown as of now.
Rules
- The event will last two months, September and October 2026!
- This event is focused on the Cygnus faction. If you don’t have a character in Cygnus, you might still be able to participate(?), but you’ll have to make up an excuse for why your character is getting dragged into this!
- Your submission doesn’t have to include the boss (for example, your character could be searching for Sarah elsewhere, or looking at the chaos from afar) but it has to clearly reference the unfolding events to count.
- You can (but don’t have to) attack the boss to try to “calm” her down. You will earn EVs depending on the amount of damage done (bear with me while I properly set up the sheet, more on that and fighting rewards when that is done). Brenda will retaliate every blow tho, so be careful!
For those who haven’t noticed, summer has kind of been kicking my ass, hence why there was no event for August. I’m slowly getting back into it, hope you guys are ready to pick the game back up too! Hope you’ll enjoy this silly, relatively low stakes event (I’m not even sure Benji will notice if Brenda tramples over one of his sobbles in the chaos, he has so many). Sarah is perfectly safe(?) probably. Don’t worry about it. There will be no consequences.